BAKU (Sputnik) — Azerbaijan needs to go global as an exporter, the Caucasus nation’s President Ilham Aliyev said Sunday as he vowed to prioritize agriculture.
"Domestic production should not only meet our own needs but we must also export more to foreign markets," Aliyev was quoted as saying by his press office.
The oil-rich former Soviet economy relies heavily on fossil fuel exports. It signed a declaration with the European Union last February to supply it with natural gas along the Southern Gas Corridor.
But Aliyev said the government would take steps to develop irrigation infrastructure to expand agricultural lands to grow more corn and cotton, and would give loans to farmers.
